OBJECTIVE The proteolytic activity of metalloproteinases, proinflammatory enzymes that degrade extracellular matrix, is elevated in lipid-rich atherosclerotic plaques, thereby contributing to plaque fragility and rupture. Pregnancy-associated plasma protein (PAPP-A) is a metalloproteinase, expressed in unstable atherosclerotic plaques, whose circulating levels are elevated in acute coronary syn...

Serum concentrations of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and apolipoproteins (apo) A-I, B, CII, CIII, and E in 36 hemodialysis patients and nine anephric patients were compared with the concentrations in 34 normolipidemic subjects. The dialysis patients displayed a moderate hypertriglyceridemia (1.94 +/- 0.12 vs 1.09 +/- 0.11 mmol/L in controls, mean +/- SEM; P less than 0.001), apo CIII conce...

BACKGROUND We assessed the ability of LDL from 30 type 1 diabetic patients (18 men, 12 women), 65 type 2 diabetic patients (35 men, 30 women), and 35 controls (19 men, 16 women) to generate peroxides. The men and women in the diabetic groups were studied separately and matched for age, body mass index, duration of diabetes, glycohemoglobin, and conventional lipid characteristics according to th...

Proteinuria is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and renal morbidity and mortality. The effects of 3-hydroxy-3-methyglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor (statin) therapy on proteinuria in normolipidemic patients with well-controlled hypertension have not been studied. A total of 63 normolipidemic (total cholesterol <240 mg/dL) and proteinuric (300 to 3000 mg/d) patients with well-c...

AIM Hypertriglyceridemia is the most common cause of low plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels; however, the correlation between high triglyceride (TG) and low HDL-C remains unclear. Endothelial lipase (EL) is a determinant of plasma HDL levels. We investigated the role of EL in HDL metabolism in a murine model of acute hypertriglyceridemia. METHODS AND RESULTS To establi...

The proximal section of the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of LDL receptor (LDLR) mRNA contains important regulatory sequences that control the messenger stability and mediate the cholesterol-lowering drug berberine (BBR)-induced increase in LDLR mRNA half-life. In the present study, we examined whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within this region cause a predisposition to the deve...

Transgenic (Tg) mice that overexpress the human apolipoprotein A-V gene (APOA5) yet lack an endogenous mouse apoa5 gene (APOA5 Tg mice) were generated. Subsequently, the effect of human apoA-V expression on plasma triglyceride (TG) concentration and lipoprotein and apolipoprotein distribution was determined and compared with that in mice deficient in apoA-V (apoa5(-/-) mice). NMR analysis of pl...